During wash and rinse cycles, dishwashers typically circulate a fluid through the wash chamber and over articles such as pots, pans, silverware, and other cooking utensils. The fluid can be e.g., various combinations of water and detergent during the wash cycle or water (which may include additives) during the rinse cycle. Typically the fluid is recirculated during a given cycle using a pump. Fluid is collected at or near the bottom of the wash chamber and pumped back into the chamber through e.g., nozzles in the spray arms and other openings that direct the fluid against the articles to be cleaned or rinsed. Depending upon the level of soil upon the articles, the fluid will become contaminated with the soil in the form of debris and particles that are carried with the fluid. It is desirable to remove or chop up the larger particles in the fluid to prevent clogging of the pump and nozzles in the spray arms, and to improve appliance performance.
Conventional dishwashers include a macerator assembly having a rotating chopper blade to pulverize and break down relatively large food particles. The chopper blade is typically placed at the pump inlet and chops up particles in the incoming fluid to a size that allows the particles to pass through the relatively small spray arm jet holes. However, such macerators have limited cutting efficiency. Therefore, even with a macerator blade, conventional macerator assemblies are used in conjunction with a filter system consisting of coarse and fine filters. The filters remove particles that are too large to be macerated by the macerator assembly, or that otherwise are not effectively chopped by the blade. The macerator blade and coarse and fine filters require additional space and result in additional components and manufacturing costs.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a dishwasher with an improved macerator assembly that eliminates the need for including coarse and fine filters, reduces the number of necessary components, simplifies structure, and provides a compact pump assembly that provides dynamic 100% maceration and filtration.